[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 13 (Thursday, February 10, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       IMMIGRATION MORATORIUM ACT

                                 ______


                             HON. BOB STUMP

                               of arizona

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, February 10, 1994

  Mr. STUMP. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing the Immigration 
Moratorium Act of 1994. The bill proposes that after two decades of 
unprecedented levels of legal and illegal immigration to the United 
States we declare a temporary pause and reform our failing immigration 
policies, which have been virtually abandoned and are not being 
enforced.
  Few can dispute that our immigration policies are no longer serving 
the interests of the United States, the American people, or, for that 
matter, immigrants. At the current pace, the United States admits 
almost 1 million legal immigrants per year. Since 1970, 19.3 million 
immigrants have settled in the United States. Needless to say, illegal 
immigration has also skyrocketed. Every year, the INS apprehends more 
than 1 million aliens attempting to illegally enter the United States. 
According to INS figures, roughly three times as many successfully 
cross our land borders.
  Mr. Speaker, many in this body may view a moratorium as a radical 
idea, not worthy of national debate, or feel that the proposed 
moratorium ignores or belittles the contribution that immigrants have 
made and make today to our Nation. Nothing could be further from my 
intent. It is not my intent to diminish the vast contributions 
immigrants made in helping to build this country, and are making today. 
Rather, it is my intent to recognize the existing realities that we 
have lost control of our borders, that our immigration policies are in 
need of urgent repair and that the long-term trend of both legal and 
illegal immigration has placed a near insurmountable burden upon our 
finite ability to absorb and make welcome those who wish to join us as 
Americans.
  We simply cannot continue to ignore the stress that unchecked 
immigration has placed upon many of our States and urban areas or their 
social, educational, and health care systems. Nor can we ignore the 
fact that immigrants themselves suffer under the existing system due to 
the lack of resources needed to help them assimilate. Studies indicate 
that a U.S., moratorium on immigration would yield highly positive 
gains by allowing the 20 million immigrants, now within our borders, 
time to assimilate into the mainstream.
  Statistics show that the present levels of immigration to this 
country have posed some very serious problems. Some of the astonishing 
facts are:
  According to economist Donald Huddle, the 1992 cost to taxpayers of 
public assistance for the 19.3 million immigrants who have settled here 
since 1970 was $62.7 billion--$42.5 billion more than the immigrants 
paid in taxes.
  Immigrant use of the Supplemental Security Income Program has jumped 
370 percent in 10 years.
  Public assistance benefits--such as health care, welfare, education 
and housing--paid to illegal aliens cost American taxpayers $10 billion 
per year, $7.6 billion more than illegals have paid in taxes.
  Asylum claims have gone from 5,801 in 1979 to a record 147,000 in 
1993. In 1992, 52 percent of asylum claimants failed to appear for 
their asylum hearings and we have no way to track them down in order to 
expel them from the country.
  In 1992, 65 percent of the births in Los Angeles County hospitals 
were to illegal aliens.
  More than 450,000 criminal aliens are currently imprisoned, on 
probation, or on parole in the United States, and Federal and State 
prisons spend $723 million per year on illegal aliens in prison.
  Several States, including my State of Arizona, have vowed to sue the 
Federal Government for reimbursements for services it provides to 
illegal immigrants.
  Americans have overwhelmingly voiced their desire to regain control 
of our borders and place strict limits on legal immigration. I believe 
that my bill is a responsible way to address their desire. The 
Immigration Moratorium Act of 1994 would continue to allow the 
immigration of spouses and minor children of U.S. citizens, legitimate 
political refugees, and those who have been waiting in the backlog for 
more than 10 years to come to the United States.
  In an effort to combat illegal immigration, my bill would eliminate 
many of the magnets responsible for the crisis. It would reform our 
asylum system, stop the payment of Federal welfare and unemployment 
benefits to illegal aliens, end the guarantee of automatic-birthright 
citizenship, and increase border security.
  It is time for a moratorium, a temporary timeout, from the 
unmanageable social and fiscal burdens that are a result of today's 
extraordinary levels of legal and illegal immigration. I hope that my 
colleagues will join me in this effort to restore a sense of 
responsibility to our immigration system.

                          ____________________